Port trucking

I was paid by the hour when I was Newark port rat for a couple years. Most days it wasn't really that bad once you got to know how everything worked. Some long days though for sure and often times quite of bit of waiting around. For a local guy paid by the hour it's not the worst gig. For an owner op paid by the load it would be a tough way to make a living unless you had a sweet deal where they made the day cab guys shuttle the loads or MT's over to the yard on a company chassis and the road guys don't actually have to deal with the ports.

 

Actually the appointment system at Global and now APM are working.Three years ago we had to pay extra due to the long wait times.

Now, you can't line up and won' be let in the gate unless you have an apointment.

Maher is close and PNCT and NYCT are also planning to set up similar systems. PNCT has already revamped their ingates.

Can't drop any chassis inside the marine terminals and most companies are bringing their own long term leased chassis, M & R Lines and wait times are a thing of the past..

Things have really changed in the 17 years I've been involved in containers.

Our owner operators are making a good living and average under 45,000 miles a year. We never advertise for operators!

 

They were already doing appointments up to a certain hour at Global back a couple years ago when I left NJ. APM was the worst place but they were getting ready to do a big construction project in summer 2019 I remember so I'm guessing that's done by now and it's better. All the chassis were moved over to the chassis depots during the 2017-19 period when I was doing it and that made a pretty big difference since they would check them for problems on the way back in and red tag them if they needed work. I got pretty good at finding good ones and hanging onto them. I miss the food trucks!

 

You nailed it on the drivers part. Newark and Long Beach is like being in a third world country the way they operate.
And to think the megas want to eliminate the CDL rule requiring that a driver must be proficient in the English language!

 

Seems to me the Feds already have since nobody enforces it when they're here on work visas. It really gets under my skin that natural born citizens are expected to follow every single rule to the letter and pay for all this while they don't do any of it and they're only here until their visa expires. It's madness! No other country in the word gives unskilled labor jobs away to foreigners. Those jobs are reserved for citizens.

 

This is the reason for all of the news now about the so called severe driver shortage.
I think it’s just the big shots in the industry buttering up the public into thinking nothing of the government dropping the CDL rules to get more drivers. As been said before, there are thousands of potential drivers crossing the border every day. I’m sure they would love to live in a freightliner condo and enjoy 0.25 cents a mile.